Too many #fantasy settings don't put enough thought into the infrastructure of mining. If you have some really big mines - which are popular with fantasy settings for good reasons! - then you need something to power the pulleys, lifts, and (most importantly) the pumps if the mines are in a region with significant amounts of groundwater. Because these mines will be wet by default.
Of course, you could go Steampunk or even Magitech, and use steam power or magical enchantments to power all this infrastructure. But a real world alternative which has been used in the Harz Mountains for centuries is - water power! Yes, that's right, you use water to pump more water out of the mines!
But the thing is, this is going to leave massive marks on the landscape. The Upper Harz has a vast system of ditches and reservoirs created over the centuries which ensured that there was always enough water available to power the mines, and the water always went where it needed to go (and parts of it are still used for electricity generation to this day).
So... if there are some dwarven, goblin, kobold or whatever mines in some nearby mountains, the first clue towards their existence might be some artificial barrier lakes and ditches that channel the flow of water to the mines - and some outflows from the mines as well, carrying the (no doubt toxic) waste with them.
What will be the effect on the human or elven communities downriver? Well, they might not be happy about it - though perhaps the ability to trade with the mines is more important for the local rulers. And such conflicting interests are, of course, great story material...
@juergen_hubert The Harz is an amazing source of inspiration for mines! There's a massive network of channels under the mountains for transporting ores and they had a very unique type of ladder elevator when safe wire rope wasn't really a thing yet.
@juergen_hubert you’re putting way too much thought into in, imho. Just conjure a couple of water elementals that take care of the problem. Hell, make that even a paid service if you’re a mage/wizard. Like a SLA or paid subscription. (Damn, that gave me an idea for an adventure. Thanks for this food for thought, btw. I’m definitely going to steal that from you :-) ) Or go with the cheap and classical route: Slavery. 😈😇😂
And once you have mines that are as deep as those of the Harz Mountains - which went hundreds of meters beneath the ground - you need some kind of mechanism, since human(oid) labor simply can't do it by hand any more.
@juergen_hubert I have visited Krásno (formerly Schönfeld) here in Czech republic. They have water canal encircling the mountain here!
It's old from 13th century and it has freaking 21km in total. It was used to power local mines. Some dwarwes technology here!
@juergen_hubert this is something I learnt from playing Kingdom Come Deliverance. Medieval technology was extremely advanced and it's underappreciated in most fantasy works
Good stuff, often overlooked. It's important, to me, to start with a realistic base before figuring out how magic can affect it, esp. if your games magic system is detailed. ("How many people in a given region can cast this or that spell, and could be employed to do so, and at what cost, including opportunity cost of them not casting crop-enhancing spells, or building spells, or combat spells?")
@juergen_hubert
A bit tangential, and entirely fictional, but:
One of Jules Verne's lesser known works 'The Underground City' (also known by several other names) tried to paint a realistic-ish idea of life and community taking place mostly inside a vast mine.
I'm don't have a sense of how realistic it ended up being, but Verne certainly did incorporate various phenomena he'd heard of.
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